August 31st • 3h 16m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
Gen Z and A
Another GenZ BOTG
On Sunday’s show you discussed ATC jobs and then how Gen-Z is “swinging back” to conservatism. As a millennial on TikTok and IG and around a surprising number of Gen-Z (at the gym, which is also a particular sample-size), I think “conservatism” is incomplete. It’s not merely a political swinging to MAGA/ republicans (which JCD noted a political point that the ‘dems don’t know what to do’).
I think there are political outcomes but the culture is upstream of the politics. I think the Gen-Z with access to TikToks of Ian Carroll (love him or hate him, he has a lane of exposing the schemes NA has documented - and incorporating/ encouraging “own research” and critical thinking). While many of the Gen-Z/ Alpha fall by the wayside and don’t even know the months or countries bordering US, another sect is engaged, thinking, and realizing the corruption (i.e. credit card companies’ schemes). -- Therefore, instead of voting for what makes me feel good, or “not the racist party”, there’s a contingent that is now critically thinking for themselves.
**I have to argue, in my view, that this renaissance doesn’t happen “because of a cycle”. Any “renaissance” doesn’t happen in a vacuum but there were precursors that engendered it. I think with the accessibility of information (internet) and the medium of easy discourse (podcasts (vs. reading blogs which is time consuming)) mainstream moderate figures like Joe Rogan who critically think and question narratives in a dialectical style (along with many others like Chris Williamson’s Modern Wisdom, Ian Carroll, PBD, Nick Fuentes, etc.) has really pushed the younger generations into a renaissance of thinking and realizing the folly of our culture’s trajectory.**
So ironically while you and JCD both wonder what caused this resurgence of engaged youth correcting the mistakes of the millennials and others, I think it’s clear that The Podcast and it’s creation has, probably, the largest contributing role in this renaissance.
-Andrew Manik
Gen A from a Millennial
Typing along as you read notes from the millennial's.
We enrolled our generation alpha son into a SAT prep course this summer.
The first thing he said to me when I picked him up after the first session was
"Dad, I need a wristwatch"
I ran upstairs, pulled my old victorinox swiss army watch out of a drawer....
and thanks to my Chinazon Prime account, had a watch repair kit delivered 4 hours later.
Our son now happily wears a ridiculously expensive wrist watch and has a $9.99 repair kit to boot.
Thanks and talk to you soon,
Matt
Martell Hardware
Millennial Mom BOTG
GenX 14% interest rates, credit wasn't available, gas lines. vietnam war trauma etc
ITM Adam,
I hope you are doing well and thought I would give you my own boots on the ground report as a millennial mom. (if you do happen to read any of this on the podcast, please keep me anonymous)
1. As a millennial, I feel like our generation maybe isn’t fully nihilistic but we have given up hope certainly in the system as a whole. We saw 9/11, most of us live in school as young kids, and were traumatized as a generation and sold a bill of goods that it was terrorism when in a reality most of us have come to realize it was likely a government set up. (WTC7 won't go away). We’ve been screwed over by the system that said if we go to college we will definitely get a good job and instead, most millennials have been subjected to ridiculous high tuition costs and into indentured servitude to the government with debts that likely we will be paying off for the rest of our lives as we graduated into a recession. Debts that can’t disappear on bankruptcy unlike everything else. So a lot of us have just given up hope in the system, and no faith that the corruption will be changed. I will say Trump getting into office the second time gives a little bit of hope that maybe real change will happen and corruption will be weeded out, but I’m not holding my breath.
2. I have three kids who are about to turn 6, 5, and 2. I gave birth right before Covid, during Covid, and after Covid with my three kids. My oldest two kids are on the spectrum and I will say the main difference between my two oldest kids and my youngest during pregnancy and as babies was that I waited (didn’t skip, just waited) before giving my youngest the hepatitis vaccine whereas the other two had that shot the day they were born because the system told us that that was the right thing to do. (Should have been my clue not to listen when the system told me it was right thing to do). Certainly after the whole Covid situation, I have been very hesitant to give my kids any sort of shots and thank God none of us got the Covid shots which I thank to you and John for, as my husband and I have been avid No Agenda listeners since our college days in 2010-2011. I have no idea what causes autism. I’ll be curious if RFK Junior actually says something substantial in September, but after Covid and doing my own research on what the shots the kids were being given I definitely waited on giving my youngest the hepatitis shot because why in the world would a healthy baby need that on the day they’re born.
3. Even with my oldest two being on the spectrum, we constantly have read to them and introduced books since they were babies. And the times we allow them to play the tablet the majority of those were educational games focused on spelling reading and numbers. My eldest started reading by three even though she struggles with other things. And I mean read independently. For example, she read the first page of Harry Potter on the books App and got every word correct without us having ever read that to her before. All of the people who were testing her for autism were very impressed by her ability to be able to read as much as she could for her age. My middle child is more nonverbal and is just more recently starting to use his voice, but even he is an excellent reader and was spelling words like squirrel and universal at age 2 using alphabet magnets on the fridge. And with the speaking tablet he has, his teachers in his early education/special education class are very impressed that he already knows past present and future tense in his spelling when he uses it to help him communicate. So if there’s anything I can tell to other young parents, it’s please read to your kids and if you do let them play tablets make sure they’re playing educational games to help them learn and grow and not brain rot. We can use technology for good instead of being lazy.
4. I have not yet lost hope in the future. My eldest started kindergarten recently, and though she is in what would be considered the special education class her teacher has done a phenomenal job in teaching the kids in her classroom. Every week, my daughter comes home with a packet of stuff that they’ve worked on for the week and I am very proud to say that in her packet that came home this Friday not only were they learning how to read a proper clock with a hour and minute hand (which my daughter got the right answers for) but they were also practicing their cursive handwriting. I feel like I’ve definitely lucked out on the teachers my kids have through our public education system, but I also would like to think there are more like them out there. I think that some of these TikTok videos that y’all are playing are exaggeration and click bait, like the teacher who said their 9-10 year olds didn’t know the months in order. What kid doesn’t know the months in order so that they can count down to when summer break is coming? My eldest knows everyday of the week and month in order. Don’t lose hope!
I hope in some way that this boots on the ground helps, and want to thank you for being so open with your journey in finding Christ. It has helped me renew my own faith even though I still have a distrust in how "man" can corrupt the church, it does not mean my faith has to be put to the side because of it. Thank you! Love and light!
Hoping this email finds you well and stay safe (lol)
Allison O
More months of the year BOTG
Dear Adam and John
I am current listening to episode 1795 - Heroin Hotties - where a music teacher was recounting her students could not recall or tell her the months of the year.
I smiled when I heard that story, as I recalled the same phenomena when teaching A-Level Accounting (16-18 year old students) at a very good international school in Cambridge between 2019 and 2024.
Knowing the months of the year in accounting is crucial for calculation depreciation, accruals and prepayments and is a skill that is tested often in exams from A-level to professional exams in book-keeping, financial accounting, management accounting and financial management papers.
Students at the school (who were all great students with strong work ethics and generally good arithmetical skills) struggled with calculating the number of months to use in an accounting operation and frequently got the answers wrong.
At first I thought it was a language issue and my lack of direction as a relatively new teacher, but as years went by it got worse and worse, and latterly students could not even tell you how many weeks there were in a year or the days in a year. I had to constantly drill them to get this right in an almost comical fashion as I would with very young primary school students.
Fellow teachers of the subject told me that it was the same across the UK in state schools, which does not give me hope for the future of the profession that I have been part of for 40 years.
To cap all this, I left the school due to family reasons and just finished a short-term gig this year teaching graduate students to pass their professional accounting exams. Sadly, I can’t say that supposedly bright graduates (average age 22 to 23) working for top accounting firms were any better at knowing or manipulating their months of the year that the foreign students that I taught previously for many years.
My only consolation for the future is that my grown-up son and daughter both know their months by heart and can manipulate them in financial calculations with ease.
Anyway, enough boomer talk of the past. Onwards To The Future With The No Agenda Podcast.
Yours sincerely and with my very best wishes
Sir Stuart The Angry Accountant
Baron Of Milford in Staffordshire, England
Commodore Of The No Agenda Navy
No Agenda Doctor of Education in Climate Change Science - Graduate Of The Class of 2024
Big Pharma
Sub Unit Vaccines
Subunit vaccines are vaccines that use only specific parts (subunits) of a pathogen, such as proteins or polysaccharides, to stimulate an immune response, rather than the whole pathogen. They are safer than live or inactivated vaccines since they can't cause disease, but they often require adjuvants to boost immunity. Examples include hepatitis B and HPV vaccines.
Big Tech AI and the Socials
Social Media is a Self Pity Promotion Machine
EU UK Ukraine and NATO
Cash withdrawals over £200 will not be automatically reported to the Financial Intelligence Unit – Full Fact
However, UK banks (HSBC) are terrible. I have an account, and getting money out (in 2024) is close to impossible. Most ATMs have low limit withdrawls per day and I had to go to the special branches in London to get bigger amounts out.
Trump Show
Flag burning - Chinese made flags
ITM Adam,
I really enjoyed the breakdown on the flag burning executive order, it cleared up some confusion I had on it. I share your views on it though I wanted to mention that I have seen Americans burn Chinese made American flags in demonstration and it made me think about it. Maybe an executive order prohibiting the sale of foreign made American flags in the U.S. would have been a bit more powerful and fit in nicely with the idea behind the tariffs, etc.. Interestingly enough Joe Biden signed a bill into law that took effect in the beginning of 2025 making it illegal for any federal building in the U.S. to fly an American flag not made in the U.S.A.. Here's a [link](https://allamerican.org/news/made-in-usa-american-flags-now-law/ "https://allamerican.org/news/made-in-usa-american-flags-now-law/") to that story. Anyway, just a little food for thought. Keep up the outstanding work!
TYFYC,
Avery
Transmaosim
Robert “Robin” Westman parents
Adam
I worked with Robert “Robin” Westman’s dad, Jim Westman, for 20 years, up to 2014. They got divorced in 2013 I believe. Their son would’ve been around 11 at the time. I don’t know for sure but I’m think the mother had custody of the kids after the divorce. I think I saw the kid at a work event or something when he was 7 or 8 but don’t remember anything unusual, just a normal little boy at that time.
Jim is a Dude Named Ben btw, a very good coder. I see people on X claiming he was a CIA Analyst or CIA contractor. I can assure you this is complete nonsense.
I have some friends that are still in contact with him but I haven’t talked to any of them about this situation since this is so hot right now.
If you mention any of this on the show please keep it anonymous and don’t mention my name or title! I know other people I worked with are producers of the show.
